Truth-telling Inquiry Day 3: Stark reality for young Indigenous children in Cherbourg dormitories

Traumatised children separated from their parents at young ages, thrown into dormitories and sexually, physically and mentally abused, have shared their stories at Queensland’s Truth Telling Inquiry.

Elder and Wakka Wakka man David Wragge shared his experiences of growing up in the Aboriginal settlement of Cherbourg.

The harrowing stories of the physical, sexual and mental abuse young Indigenous children faced while living in the dormitories of an Aboriginal Settlement have been heard on the third day of a landmark inquiry in Brisbane.

Elder and Wakka Wakka man David Wragge, was the third speaker to take the stand at the Queensland Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry where he shared his experiences of growing up in the boys dormitory in the Aboriginal settlement of Cherbourg.

Separated from his parents at just nine years old Mr Wragge, along with his brothers, were forced into the dormitory which he described as “really quite horrific”.

“As a child there’s no love given to you, the six years I spent in the boys home, we had no love given to us,” Mr Wragge said.

“You get beatings and floggings – could be a strap, could be a switch – that was a daily routine.

“The trauma that came out of that dormitory – we had abuse, physical, sexual and mental abuse. All of us, including myself, it’s part of my healing journey.”

Mr Wragge described not having his own clothes until he was in high school and due to the requirement of a permit to visit, would mostly see his father with a fence in between them.

However, it was the lack of safety provided to the boys that Mr Wragge paid a particular focus to, revealing they had no secure lockdown and “anyone could have come in (and) cut our throats”.

“I always believe you should never have children with men or adults in the same location, (the dormitory) was open to the community, anyone would come in … men came from other locations to work at Cherbourg and gain skills and that’s when bad things happened, abuse happened from those blokes that come here,” he said.

“Things that happened to us as children wasn’t our fault. The perpetrators that done that to us, who done those things to us, they’re the ones who should be held accountable and I guess that shaped me in the work I’ve done in the past, why I’m passionate about protecting children – all children – and I will continue to do that until I die.”

Now 66 years old, Mr Wragge continues to advocate for child protection, as well as the importance of education in his work with the Healing Foundation Stolen Generations Reference Group.

Elder and Gunggari woman Ruth Hegarty, writer of the memoir and stage production Is That You Ruthie?, also described her experiences of abuse in the girls dormitory from four to 14 years old in which the “nasty” headmaster would try and put his hand down the girls shirts.

Aunty Ruth Hegarty at her Fitzgibbon home in 2010.

“He would sit behind us. We had stools behind our desks, and he would sit on that with his legs spread and you are in between his leg(s).

“And, terrible to have to say this, but your girls would feel the heat – that’s the sort of man he was. But who would believe us? We couldn’t tell anybody about it,” she said via a prerecorded video.

Mr Wragge said many of the men and women who were in the dormitory never recovered from the trauma, leading many to be incarcerated or turn to drugs and alcohol.

“If you’re traumatised when you are a child it doesn’t discriminate who you are as person, whether you are Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, or whatever sex you are,” he said.

He went on to say the inquiry was important in “righting a wrong in the past history”.

“The world isn’t a level playing field for everyone... but for me it’s about the passion I have for a better country, a better Australia and that can only happen if the truth be told,” he said.

“I think young Australians are much more accommodating for the truth and … I got faith that young Australians, young Queenslanders want the truth to be in our curriculum – to be in our schools, in our universities.”

Originally published as Truth-telling Inquiry Day 3: Stark reality for young Indigenous children in Cherbourg dormitories